I realize that this is absolutely too little, too late, will have little to no effect on Bungie's forthcoming release of Destiny 2, but for future installments in this saga, who's original visions were lofty, ambitious and inspiring, I hope something in this text might be taken into consideration, or at least, taken to heart, while forging the path ahead... From the content I have played throughout Destiny 1, every encounter against the caste of enemies we had come to know as Minions of the Darkness seemed to unfold in routine similarity, and to an excruciating degree. Our enemies seem to lack the breadth of vision that was once held in anticipation by your fans. The enemies that stand before us, seem to be devoid of any kind of dynamic movement patterns, or interesting responses that keep the game's interactions fun, for the hundredth, or even thousandth time they are encountered, something that was once of key concern to the Bungie of yore. That said, you can have a range of beautifully designed environments and landscapes to wage war in and a list of different categories of enemies to fight-- BUT IT IS ALL FOR NAUGHT-- if they all behave more or less the same in any given situation. This attributes to what is a spectrum of enemies that you have created who's personalities are virtually indistinct from one another. To proffer one character example: Whenever a player enters a skirmish with any Minions of the Darkness, in this instance, lets say the Fallen -- which were one of our first glimpses into the identity of our new enemies-- they seem to respond as isolated individuals, rather than components of a functioning unit, homing in to consume a Guardian's Light. Within this absence of visibly coherent strategy the NPC's exhibit, is too, a scarcely observable combat mobility, wherein their only strength is their sheer numbers, or, for larger and stronger enemies, how much ammunition you can pump them full of until they drop. This system creates extremely underwhelming and sparsely satisfying combat victories for the player. It is due to this formula used throughout the story missions (and the lack of cohesive narrative key elements), that, unfortunately, I was forced to just give up and enter the Crucible as my primary Destiny entertainment, which, as much as I tried, did not captivate me for long compared to the amount of hours I invested in it. This was due to an overall feeling of imbalance, but I digress. Now, forgive me in advance for any topical cliché, but I feel the following comparison must be drawn, since it embodies Bungie's most recent endeavor before Destiny. One of the fundamental elements that made the decisive last installment in your previous saga, Halo: Reach, such a great creative endeavor of interactive artwork, was the uniqueness in the design of it's enemies, in particular, that of the Elites; the agility and fierce unpredictability they possessed scarcely failed at keeping engagements interesting, well-paced and pulse-elevating. As soon as you were sure you had a bead on them, they would dodge right out of your line of fire --whether it be a well-timed roll, dive or juke-- and they would use these responses to player stimuli often, and this kept the player sensitive to have their wits about them. The motion they displayed truly gave the player a sense of urgency in combat. If you were dumb enough not engage them swiftly and with haste, they would gain ground advantage, and soon you would have a ferocious problem on your hands, up close and personal. Upon death, you would learn from your mistakes and apply different tactics as you learned the behaviors that formed their ranks. In addition to this brilliant character design, and without going too much further into droning comparative detail, you can also observe, to a degree, your enemies working together against you, playing off each other's specific strengths and squad functions in what felt like the cohesive effort of a unit, containing defined roles, to thwart you. Again, if you were not methodical in how you chose to engage the enemy, you would soon be overrun and would be forced to apply different strategies as you learned these well-defined roles within the enemy caste. The driving force for how you dispatch your foes should not be solely based upon how full their health bar is, but what lengths you have to go in the order to strategize and outmaneuver their ranks. Considering this on a broader horizon, I think it is of high importance to flesh out how each enemy reacts in correspondence to their own allies, and how group tactics change depending on your proximity- down range, or face to face. When examining the amount of time spent and experience the Bungie staff have gained throughout the development of previous titles, one would think this to be self-evident, as you design the core antagonists, whose sole purpose is interactivity with the player in the universe you painstakingly continue to craft. Now, please don't mistake me, I am by no means saying that you should clone the character mechanics of a game from a bygone era beloved by the Bungie community. But, I do think it would be well worth re-evaluating the groundwork you have laid down from previous projects to improve the behavioral archetypes for the Minions of the Darkness, and diversify these character interactions. This is a key factor in what keeps games interesting and enjoyable in the long term, not to mention it might make *dat grind* a much more satisfying and valuable experience while obtaining XP, acquiring loot and earning reputation within the realm of your PvE. Lastly: To explore a set of secondary nuances, the personality traits for characters do not have to be strictly limited to when they are in the midst of combat with the player. I think behaviors our adversaries exhibit when they are at rest, interacting with their environment, is also of significant interest when designing an immersive open world experience. Communication amongst the enemy would, additionally, enhance the depth to these characters. Conversations and outbursts in dark tongues, as they rummage through scrap heaps for salvageable tech they seek to harvest, splice into City communications relays, repair their weapons and armor, or even eat and groom. It would be dire to witness the light of a Guardian feasted upon at the jaws of a ravenous pack of Fallen, or swarm of Hive. In reality, you can observe the behaviors of any organism and traits they've adapted given the environment in which they dwell. The same ought to be true in Destiny, if you desire to create an authentic, captivating, and immersive planetary landscape for the players to explore. While these nuances are not integral to the success or failure of a game, they certainly help expand on the personality traits of the characters you provide to be inhabiting, and sieging, the last bastion of humanity. The behaviors of the AI in Destiny, as they are presently, do not convey the sense of urgency a player deserves as they take part in a world seemingly larger than themselves; that contains characters they should have feelings towards one way or another, aside from the fact they are inclined to aim their rifle at them and pull the trigger in order to collect trinkets. My question is thus: Through the partnership forged with your once primary competitor, crunching to meet their deadlines, personnel changes that have taken place, re-amalgamations of the hazily remnant schemings of this brave new world you had set out to create; do you feel you have done each other and your ambitious visions as a team justice? How do you intend to forge the path ahead? There is still a bounty of potential for the Destiny saga, and I look forward to what Bungie has up their sleeves. That said, I hope they can reignite the spark of my interest and rekindle my excitement once more, because no other developer has captivated me like Bungie has throughout the years passed. But recently, my interest has been fading like the dying light of the Traveler. Hope to see you starside. Sincerely, - FelifluxMadness P.S. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. #GuardianDown